Is the iPhone Finally Headed to T-Mobile?

If wireless carries got together for a game of dodgeball and had to pick teams, we have a feeling T-Mobile would be the last one picked. That would definitely be the case if Apple was put in charge of the event. To wit, Apple's iPhone has been on the market for over five years, has been upgraded five times (after the original iPhone, there was the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, and iPhone 5), and has been made available to more carriers than just AT&T for almost 2 years now, yet T-Mobile is still stuck on the sidelines. Is it time to invite T-Mobile to the party?

Merrill Lynch analyst Scott Craig thinks so. According to Fortune, Craig sent out a note to investors saying "speculation is heightening" about a pending deal between Deutsche Telecom and Apple to bring the iPhone to its U.S. subsidiary, T-Mobile.

This would be a huge win for T-Mobile, though Craig cautions "any financial impact would be limited" for Apple, which he estimates would move an additional 4 million units in 2013. If that's the case, it would only increase Apple's revenue by 1 percent and its earnings per share by 2 percent. Still, when you're talking about the kind of money Apple makes, a 1 percent bump is a lot of money.

As it currently stands, the only way to run an iPhone on T-Mobile's network is to grab an unlocked GSM handset (AT&T phones are compatible) and slide in the wireless carrier's SIM card.